Helen Mackay Brown

Helen Mackay Brown, my grandma, who has died aged 89, was known in our family for her endless energy, sense of fun, and her love of pickled onions, boiled sweets, conversation, dancing and giggling. But not until more than 200 people turned up to her funeral on a rainy Antrim day did we realise just what an amazing woman she was.

Born in Edinburgh, she met my granddad, Andie Brown, at a Christmas Eve dance in 1934. My own memories of gran dancing are of her forcing me and my sisters to dance to the Birdy Song, so it's good to think of her being romanced to the sound of Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

During the second world war, she was posted from Edinburgh to Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, as a lance corporal in the Royal Army Pay Corps. She later bravely asked to go to America on a freight ship, the Condor, as part of a north Atlantic convoy, despite the threat of U-boat attacks, to join granddad, who had been relocated to Rhode Island to work on the manufacturing and testing of torpedoes. She became one of those assembling them.

After the war and the birth of two children, the family accompanied granddad on a posting to South Africa, and lived there for three years. This was during the apartheid era, but Helen took no notice of people's race. She caused a stir by accepting people as she found them, and made many friends there.

When the family eventually settled in Antrim in 1959, gran embraced life there, too, and made friends across the board. She worked for 20 years as a nursing assistant at Holywell hospital, helping mentally and physically disabled people. She was also heavily involved with the Royal British Legion (becoming the president of the local branch in 2004), Trefoil Guild, Chest Heart and Stroke Association, Women's Institute, RAF Wings Appeal, Poppy Appeal, Friendship Club, Age Concern, hospital visiting and, as she called it, "helping the old folks".

My sisters and I learned a lot from gran and the life she led. Maybe one day we'll be able to consider ourselves even half the woman she was.